In the past year, Ronald Lauder’s brother Leonard died, his hometown of New York rejected his preferred mayoral candidate and antisemitic incidents rose around the world.
Still, the 81-year-old billionaire cosmetics heir says he’s optimistic about 2026.
“We have a lot of problems, and I believe they can be solved,” Lauder said in a recent interview in his office at New York’s General Motors Building. “We have a great president. He’s controversial at times, but he’s doing some major things, great things.”
The lifelong Republican donor, who gave $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration and a similar amount to Andrew Cuomo’s failed mayoral bid, supported Representative Elise Stefanik for New York governor before she dropped out and Trump endorsed Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Lauder has yet to commit to any other candidate for 2026, except to say he just wants to unseat incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul.
“It’s too soon to make any official comment on my intentions,” Lauder said in a statement Sunday. “A primary isn’t good for anyone. Defeating Hochul will be good for all of New York State.”
He sees a change this time from 2022, when he poured $11 million into Lee Zeldin’s unsuccessful run, and expects more New Yorkers than ever will be joining him in writing checks.
“It’s the only way” to counter the policies of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Lauder said, which include raising taxes on the rich to pay for free buses and childcare.
A spokesperson for Mamdani, a democratic socialist and an outspoken critic of Israel, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Now in his 18th year as president of the World Jewish Congress, Lauder is also focused on addressing the rise of antisemitism by trying to rid social media and educational institutions of such aspersions. He brings to it years of dealing with the aftermath of the Holocaust by seeking restitution of art and funds, preserving the structures and artifacts of Auschwitz, and establishing schools in Eastern Europe for the Jews remaining there.
He is the younger son of Estée and Joseph Lauder, who founded Estée Lauder Cos. He grew up in Manhattan, and attended Bronx Science High School. His political convictions were sparked by meeting Ronald Reagan in his parents’ living room in the 1960s. Lauder’s call to Jewish activism came in the 1980s, when — while serving as US Ambassador to Austria — he was exposed to antisemitism after not attending the inauguration of President Kurt Waldheim because of his Nazi past.
While he travels often, his home is New York. It’s here that he helped save elm trees, ran for mayor, fought for term limits and founded with his brother the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. He was chairman of the Museum of Modern Art through its 2004 expansion, donated armor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and created a museum, the Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue, for Austrian and German art, where hangs a Klimt portrait he bought for $135 million.
During an hourlong interview, surrounded by photographs of Israeli prime ministers and his mom as well as a collection of 16th and 17th century menorahs, Lauder touched on the future of the Middle East, his legacy and the future of the company that provided his fortune.
His comments have been edited and condensed.
Antisemitism is now coming from the left and the right. Does that surprise you?
It’s surprising, but you have to know the cause. I believe that the secret [to dealing with antisemitism] is education, because we’ve allowed our enemies to take over education and children are learning things in school that are anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, anti-West. Our schools are now — K through 12 — a disaster.
It’s also about social media. We in the West have never used social media as a weapon. The Middle East is using it as a powerful weapon. For example, Elon Musk did a study. Usually, I’m not crazy about some of the things he does, but he’s very good on this. This study was about where social media was coming from. Turns out, it was coming from Indonesia, it was coming from the Middle East, from all over and they were posing as Americans, when, in fact, they were not. They were fake.
How is President Trump’s stated campaign to be cracking down on antisemitism at universities going?
Very well. And next I want two things. I want to see more accounting [of foreign money going to universities], and I want to find out, in the schools, which teachers are coming and teaching antisemitism, anti-Christian and anti-West.
You were part of a big effort to preserve Auschwitz.
It was falling apart, it was a mess. And I said, “Look, this is our history.” I want people to know this. So we raised $40 million and we got to work to preserve it so people could visit. I’m now working on Treblinka so the mass killing of 900,000 people there will not be forgotten.
You are also involved in an effort to seek further restitution from Swiss banks for Jewish money seized by the Nazis. Is that still underway?
Stay tuned. I was part of the original deal, with Paul Volcker. We got 1 percent, right, $1.25 billion. Can you imagine what 100 percent would be?
With a cease-fire in place, what do you see for rebuilding in Israel and redevelopment in Gaza?
I believe in the potential of a new Middle East, where you have the Abraham Accords, but there are many other countries now who want to join. I believe that you put them together. It could be a Marshall Plan, it could be a Trump plan, it could be something else. It could be fantastic.
At the UJA dinner, Marc Rowan called Mamdani the enemy of the Jewish people. What do you make of his this and Mamdani winning the election?
I’ll respond to that one way. Governor Hochul has driven away a great percentage of the tax base. The wealthy used to make up 40 percent of the tax base. Now you are losing too much of that.
So unseating Hochul is your way of handling Mamdani?
It’s the only way.
Will you give big in this governor’s race?
It’s not me. It’s the entire Republican Party — and a lot of people from New York. In the past, it’s been not as easy to raise money for New York as it is for Pennsylvania and other places. Today, I believe there are many New Yorkers who believe that taxes are out of control.
We saw Trump befriend Mamdani on his visit to the White House. What do you make of that?
I can’t answer that, I don’t know. President Trump does some brilliant things and you only find out later how brilliant it was.
How’s the turnaround at Estée Lauder going? The stock’s up with a new CEO and quarterly profit beat expectations.
It’s going very well. There’s a long way to go, but I believe that we as a family have a great deal more to do to build it. I love being part of it.
We saw recently that Leonard’s heirs sold $1 billion in stock.
Leonard, during his lifetime, did not sell much. I have not sold much, because we believe in the company, and we believe that this stock can go very high. The theory that we grew up still holds today: It’s quality, it’s working together. We are a family in business, but our business is also for everybody else to have as a public company. We think about customers, everybody.
When you accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, you invoked Andrew Carnegie, saying if you die with money, you are disgraced. What is your plan?
Probably, what he did — give it away, and leave enough for your family to grow and things like that. But nothing lives beyond you, except the deeds you do.
By Amanda Gordon
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Ronald S. Lauder Retires from Estée Lauder Board
Lauder, who is the son of the cosmetics company’s founder Estée Lauder, joined the business in 1964 and has served on its board for over 45 years.
